Systems constructed by a network such as a LAN (Local Area Network) are widely used in buildings that house companies and government agencies and the like, as well as in school campuses or similar. External communication networks such as the Internet can be accessed from client computers connected to these networks, the information and apparatuses and so on of the system being shared by a plurality of users.
The users use a client computer to carry out their work. In addition, the users perform actions necessitated by their work that involve external communication networks as well as shared information and apparatuses and so on of the system being accessed from the client computer. However, a range of problems including reduced work efficiency arise if a user uses a client computer to perform non-work related actions such as accessing web pages not directly related to work or to play computer games and so on.
Other non-work related actions that can be performed by a user of a client computer include illegal actions such as the doctoring, leaking and destruction of information. An inherent problem to these systems is that the state of work being performed by a user of a client computer is not immediately recognizable and, accordingly, regulating against non-work related actions being performed by a user is difficult. A method for accessing non-work related web pages based on an accumulation of web page access records has been devised.
The problems inherent to this method pertain to the difficulty associated with auditing viewed web pages from access records such as web page IP addresses, and to the fact that records of recreational actions such as on-line games are difficult to retain and, accordingly, difficult to audit. Accordingly, a range of systems have been proposed as means for monitoring a usage state of a client computer connected to a network. Cited document 1 discloses a system for monitoring a usage state of a LAN connected-client computer.
In this system, a screen of a monitored apparatus connected to a LAN is displayed on a display of a monitoring apparatus connected to the LAN and, in addition, is recorded and stored on a recording apparatus connected to the LAN. The received display image information is correlatively recorded with time and identifying information specifying the source monitored apparatus in a history database stored in the recording apparatus. The usage state of a client computer can be ascertained from this history database.
Cited document 2 discloses a system for monitoring a plurality of computers using a single server computer. An image displayed on a video display of an agent computer is compressed, sent to the server computer by way of a network, and is either expanded and displayed on a video display or recorded in a storage device in a compressed state. In addition, the title of a processing currently in operation on an agent computer is sent to the server computer and used to complement the lack of information associated with screen compression.    Cited Document 1: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application No. 2003-91433    Cited Document 2: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application No. 2001-229141